Good morning,

I am enjoying the discussion regarding ISO 15489 and am pleased to see it on
the list serve.  It's an important tool.

ISO 15489 has, for me as a professional records manager, no profound insight
into records management practices.  What it does do, in my opinion, is lay
out strategies that records managers the world over can look to and be
complaint with. I am not saying it is without its faults. For instance, I
find the definitions to be extremely weak and the language of the standard
often quite convoluted.  Nevertheless, the standard is a great advocacy tool
within any organization as it provides a consistent means of addressing the
substantive issues of managing records.  With the standard behind me, it is
much easier to approach senior management and have records management issues
given some priority.

I have contacted standards organizations the world over and talked with
persons who have been and are involved in the writing and updating of the
standard and have found that there are no known bodies accredited to certify
others under this standard.  It certainly makes sense to me, as a records
manager, that there be certification available.  If we have a standard that
our organizations can be measured by, then we should have certification
available.  To me certification is a way of saying to our stakeholders that
yes we most certainly are complaint and yes, their records are most
certainly appropriately managed.

I think it is important to remember that this standard has nothing to do
with archives nor archivists.  While I am also a professional archivists I
would never look to ISO 15489 for guidance.  Archivists appraise, acquire,
arrange and describe, and provide access within the confines of the law to
records of archival value (those that have long-term legal, evidential,
historical, etc. value).  Archival records are those at the end of their
lifecycle, being that they are not active, semi-active, nor inactive.
Furthermore, ISO 15489, is not applicable for archivists and as it says so
in its footnote.  If you are looking for archival standards one can look to
the internationally recognized ISAD(G) from the ICA or in Canada we use RAD
(Rules for Archival Description).

Regards,

Carrie Eirene Stevenson




Carrie Eirene Stevenson



>From: David Aspinall <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: David Aspinall <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: ISO 15489 Certification
>Date: Mon, 29 Nov 2004 19:40:01 -0000
>
>My apologies in advance but I really do have difficulty with this concept.
>I
>do not know of any certification and fail to understand its potential
>value.
>I don't have a copy of ISO 15489-2:2001 available for reference but my
>understanding was that ISO 15489-2:2001 was a process for determining
>records keeping limitations within an existing organisation and a method
>for
>determining the shortfalls and for building an action plan to remedy those
>shortfalls followed by a quality review circle at the end. This defines a
>development procedure (which could be encompassed under a PRINCE II project
>management regime) rather than a review of an organisation's processes and,
>as such, is a one-off (but repeatable) rather than on ongoing process. Any
>evaluation process is valid if the result is valid and the only way to
>judge
>that is to repeat the evaluation!
>
>My second problem is with ISO 15489 as a concept. This is a process to
>determine records keeping requirements but surely this is the tail wagging
>the dog. If the data capture and document management procedures are in
>place
>(which is where you can really improve business efficiency and reduce cost)
>then records management rules are a natural extension. I guess it was the
>archivists who wrote ISO 15489 rather than those responsible for the day to
>day business!
>
>Sorry, it's only Monday but roll on Friday!
>
>David Aspinall
>Datum Solutions Limited
>Datum House
>4 Priory Close
>Fleet
>Hampshire
>GU51 4ED
>Direct Line: 01252 612805
>Mobile: 07785 234322
>[log in to unmask]
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: The UK Records Management mailing list
>[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Paul
>Hetherington
>Sent: 29 November 2004 17:01
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: ISO 15489 Certification
>
>I am aware of the provisions of Section 5 of ISO 15489-2:2001 which is
>concerned with the Monitoring and Auditing of records management systems
>and operations, but does anybody know of any formal certification scheme
>for an organisations record management practices as being compliant with
>ISO 15489? Or organisations that would under take such a certification? I
>am interested in the position in the rest of Europe as well
>
>Regards,
>
>Paul
>_____________________________________________
>Paul Hetherington
>Unisys Ltd